FM Walsh & Associates Inc.

What is Important?

What is important to you?  If everything you do is at the same level, then nothing is different, not one item on your list is more important than another.  Life and business are not about squeezing as much as you possibly can into a day, they are about getting the right things done.  How do you define what is important for you to get done in a day?  This will vary from person to person, depending on what role you play.  It is very easy to get stuck completing tasks that are urgent, but at the end of the day, you may not feel a sense of satisfaction.

How do you categorize between important tasks and easy-to-do or urgent tasks?  Personally, I categorize everything I have to do into four categories: 1) not urgent, important; 2) not urgent, not important; 3) urgent, important; and 4) urgent, not important.  I learned these four principles from reading Dr. Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.  I always try to live in the ‘not urgent, important’ box, but it is inevitable that ‘urgent, important’ tasks will come up sometime during the day.

If you have a clearly laid out plan and system to organize tasks, then not only the easy-to-do and urgent tasks get done, but also the important tasks get completed and you feel a sense of satisfaction.  Most importantly, you need to have a good system of defining what’s most important to you, so that you get the right tasks done!  What type of system do you use to be sure that you get done what is most important to you?